WUNC-FM

As you may know, one of our frequent visitors, Radiogirl is none other than Laura Leslie of WUNC-FM. She's a good sport, a great writer, and a tireless reporter ... and her take on our governors debate last night is well worth reading.

Still, it’s an important first– especially because it puts candidates face to face with informed voters who want to know a lot about a lot more things than the race is currently addressing. Both Moore and Perdue played it safe tonight, which was the politically smart thing to do. But I’d bet they both came away with an enhanced understanding of the difference between what grassroots Dems care about and what big party donors do.

It's been an interesting few days around here. We saw some high drama about party loyalty, an excellent discussion among lieutenant governor candidates about actual issues, and the beginnings of a dust-up between two of those candidates regarding what constitutes "good" campaigning.

All of which brings me to today's momentous question from Laura Leslie, intrepid reporter and blogger at WUNC-FM. Laura, it seems, is trying to make sense of the ongoing resume wars between Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue. After chronicling Moore's accusations about Perdue's academic record and lampooning Moore's claim that he attended Harvard, she takes on the big question that's burning in the hearts of North Carolinians everywhere:

So you tell me - who fudged worse? And let me know if I can use your comment, with or without your name attached.

So you tell me? Why is it that professional journalists responsible for covering state politics spend so much time reporting on stuff like this? I thought that's what amateurs like us were for.

I have a love-hate relationship with North Carolina Public Radio (WUNC-FM) these days. On one hand, I consider them among the best sources of news here in the Triangle. And on the other hand, I consider them squarely in the pack of mainstream media lapdogs. So now that the station has started its annual on-air fundraising drive, I'm again torn about what to do.

Over the years, my wife and I have given a great deal of money to support WUNC. I helped create their capital campaign more than ten years ago to pay for new facilities and equipment. We also held a fundraiser at our house to help the station attract Dick Gordon from Boston.

And while the station does have some interesting coverage of North Carolina (The State of Things), their national news is pretty much the same old same old as everyone else delivers - softball bullshit from insiders who are complicit in the disastrous reign of King George. Cokie Roberts, in particular, is an embarrassing apologist for the Bush administration, despite rumors she's a Democrat. Her regular appearance on public radio has caused me to reset the station preferences in my truck on more than one occasion.